


Fourteen Rolls of Paper

by the_most_beautiful_broom



Series: 12 Days of Ficmas 2018 [4]
Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Christmas Fluff, F/M, Marriage Proposal, less that 2k fam!!! i did it!!!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-03
Updated: 2018-12-03
Packaged: 2019-08-30 02:33:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,653
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16756201
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_most_beautiful_broom/pseuds/the_most_beautiful_broom
Summary: for the prompt "i did that annoying thing where i put loads of smaller boxes inside one big box and you’re getting really mad but you don’t know that the ring is in the smallest box and i can’t wait to see your face" (but i changed it some, because of who i am as a writer)





	Fourteen Rolls of Paper

“Thank you."

Raven says it quietly, watches the words play across Zeke’s face with the street lights as they drive back from Monty and Harper’s.

“For what?” he asks, and she’s relieved to see genuine confusion on his face when he turns to look at her quickly.

Raven shifts in her seat. “For doing the _Christmas Eve With Your Girlfriend’s Friends_ thing.”

Zeke waves his hand. “Ah, no worries. You know I like your friends.”

Raven doesn’t say anything, waits. Of course he likes her friends, everyone should, but she knows they’re lowkey exhausting, and though he’d never admit it, Zeke is still terrified of half of them.

“I mean it,” Zeke says unconvincingly.

Raven hums. “Well, still. Thank you.”

This time, he doesn’t look over, but the hand that isn’t on the wheel travels down to the center console, palm up; Raven slips her fingers into his. He squeezes gently, then lifts her hand, pressing a soft kiss to the back of her hand.

“Welcome.”

It’s not a long drive home, but Raven still finds herself feeling sleepy by the time they pull into the driveway. Zeke comes around the car to get her door, which she tells him at least twice a day he doesn’t have to do, but he still does.

This time, she’s grateful, because she can burrow into his side and lean into him up the driveway.

He rests his arm around her shoulder, rubbing gently as he leads them up to their apartment. It’s not as nice as Clarke’s, or as artsy as Luna’s, or as cool and Murphy and Emori’s, but it’s home. Their home, hers and Zeke’s, which she’s still not over. She’s never been someone who dreams of a white picket fence, but their one-bedroom is closer to a fairy tale than she’d ever thought she’d get.

Inside, she plugs in the Christmas tree and Zeke switches on the gas fireplace. Her compromise for Christmas Eve with her friends was to watch one of Zeke’s claymation Christmas films; she thinks they’re a waste of time, but he’s surprisingly nostalgic about them. She topples onto the couch and she can hear Zeke laughing at her, but she doesn’t care. She sits up a bit as he comes around, raising her shoulders just enough so he can sit, then rest her head on his legs.

The movie is _A Year Without A Santa Claus_ , and Raven decides that Santa is weak. He’s complaining about aches in his fingers and “all ten toes” (Raven counts; claymation Santa has four fingers on each hand) but she bites her tongue. Zeke dealt with Bellamy’s dad friend handshake and Emori cheating him out of twenty bucks in an impromptu poker game, so she can endure 80 minutes of an antiquated relic of a film.

She gives up on the pretense though, her eyes drifting shut as Zeke’s fingers carding through her hair lull her to sleep.

She doesn’t think she dozes, but then Zeke's face is swimming into focus above her, and the end credit music is playing. She lifts her arm and squints at her watch; it reads 12:08am.

“Merry Christmas,” she mumbles, settling back into the couch, her eyes drifting shut again and her voice sleepier than she’d planned.

Zeke chuckles. “Merry Christmas to you too. I got you something.”

Raven’s eyes fly open. “No you didn’t.”

At least Zeke has the grace to look somewhat sheepish. “I might’ve.”

Raven pushes herself out of his lap; it’s sweet that he got a present, yeah, but they said no gifts this year. She’d wanted it to be just memories. “Babe, we said no presents.”

“I know, I know, but I had to.”

“You absolutely didn’t!” It’s late and she’s sleepy, and she really shouldn’t let it get to her, but it _is_ getting to her, because he didn’t get him anything.

“Gifts aren’t gifts because of reciprocity, Ray,” he says, like he’s reading her thoughts. And he looks so earnest, and excited, that she can’t be mad at him.

“Okay,” she sighs, “But I’m getting you a New Years present or something.”

“No you’re not,” Zeke says happily, jumping up from the couch. He presses a kiss on her forehead before running out of the room. “Close your eyes!” he calls.

“Are you serious?”

“I don’t kid about Christmas.”

“Zeke—”

“Come on, babe.”

Raven sighs dramatically, just for effect, but closes them. She hears a grunt, like Zeke is picking something heavy up, then his padded footsteps across the floor. He sets something down on the ottoman, and then she feels the couch dip as he sits next to her.

“Okay,” he says excitedly, and when she opens her eyes, the box on the ottoman is halfway to the ceiling.

“I didn’t get you anything and you get me this??” she knows her voice is whiny, but she has got to be the world’s worst girlfriend.

“Just open it,” he says, and Raven shakes her head; he really is too into Christmas. But she stands up, trying to shake some blood back into her legs, and pulls at the paper. The white and gold stars peel away, and fall back to reveal…

“A box,” she says dryly, “However did you know?”

Zeke snorts. “It’s what’s inside the box that counts.”

She resists the urge to roll her eyes and rips at the tape.

There’s another box inside of this one; this time wrapped in red and green striped paper.

Zeke shrugs innocently when she looks down at him, and helps her lift it out of the first box. Inside the red and green box is a butcher-paper-wrapped box, and inside of that one is a black paper with silver stars.

Zeke looks entirely too pleased with himself when she peels back that box to find a box wrapped with Rudolph-themed paper.

“How many rolls of wrapping paper did you buy?”

“Fourteen,” he says contentedly.

Raven counts the patterns on the discarded paper on the floor. “...I’ve opened five.”

“Better tuck in,” he says, and she can hear the amusement on his voice.

He has the audacity to laugh when she gets to the eighth box and it’s wrapped in birthday paper.

“I’m feeling less guilty by the minute,” she tells him, and he chuckles again, as more and more patterns fall to the floor.

She rips open a box with Snoopy paper and counts the patterns on the floor just to be sure…

“Last one!” she declares triumphantly. The box is about the size of a shoe box, and she brings it back to the couch with her; Zeke makes room, and she’s annoyed about the mess that’s all over their living room, but he looks too pleased with himself for it to stick.

There’s another box inside, wrapped in the first white and gold paper, and Zeke’s eyes are absolutely shining when she looks over at him.

“You asked how many papers I bought,” he says conspiratorially.

“You’re lucky I love you,” she grumbles as she opens it.

It’s the last box.

Inside, is a necklace envelope, something satin that looks like it should be in a Julia Roberts movie, with a clasp on the front and clips inside to hold the necklace straight.

Raven frowns a little; she wasn’t expecting this.

She doesn’t do jewelry, not really; it gets in the way at the garage where she works. But Zeke has been so excited for this, and when she looks up at him, something like nervousness is on his face.

“Open it,” he says softly.

She does.

It’s a gold chain. Simple, delicate, light, with no charm on it. It’s beautiful, but it’s...anticlimactic feels like the wrong word, but it just doesn’t match. Why would Zeke go through all of this for a gold chain that she hasn’t even asked for?

Raven feels the couch shift a bit, but her fingers trace over the delicate metal against the satin envelope.

“It’s beautiful,” she says, honestly. “Thank you—”

“I know you wouldn’t wear this in the shop.”

Zeke’s voice comes from in front of her and Raven looks up, the world freezes. He’s on one knee, his hand extended and a gold ring with a single diamond between his thumb and forefinger.

“W-what?” she stammers, not understanding.

Zeke smiles a bit, something lopsided, his heart in his eyes. “There are a million things I could say, Ray, about how you’re my world, my love, my forever, but it’s nothing I haven’t said before and won’t say again. So...I’ll keep it short. Marry me?”

Raven’s mouth isn’t working, her brain isn’t working, and she’s pretty sure she can’t breathe either.

“I wouldn’t get you something that you won’t wear in the garage,” Zeke says carefully, “So you could put this on the chain, keep it close. Keep me close. What do you say?”

And a million words run through her mind, a million different ways to say yes, but what comes out is, “Why the hell did you feel the need to wrap ninety boxes just to ask me?”

Zeke’s mouth quirks up and he looked like he’s going to defend himself but Raven doesn’t wait to hear it, just wraps her hands around Zeke’s face and pulls him to her. She can feel him smiling through the kiss and he tastes like the cider Monty swore wasn’t spiked and Raven feels herself smiling too, then she pulls back.

Zeke’s eyes blink open slowly, focusing on her from such a short distance and her thumb comes up to trace his lips.

“Of course I’ll marry you,” she says sweetly, bumping his forehead with hers. “Even though you’re a dork who likes claymation movies and proposes on Christmas Eve.”

Zeke smiles, a lazy smile, a slow smile, like it’s the most precious thing she’s said to him, before leaning in to press his lips against hers again.


End file.
